Water Resource Collections and Archives

Suisun Creek: Fish Survey and Water Temperature Monitoring

Organization: California Land Stewardship Institute
2008 Grant Recipient – Napa / Solano Counties

Purpose

As part of the Suisun Creek Watershed Enhancement Plan water temperature monitoring in Suisun Creek has been carried out since 2002. In 2006 an experiment was completed where the City of Vallejo released certain levels of water from their reservoir, Lake Curry, into Suisun Creek for a week or more at a time and a series of monitoring stations on Suisun Creek recorded continuous water temperatures. The experiment found that three miles downstream from the dam, the stream had warm temperatures over 70° F. These results raised the question of whether the dam releases created habitat for warm water fish such as pike minnow which prey on juvenile steelhead trout.

This grant funded a summer/fall survey of fish in Suisun Creek and monitoring of water temperatures. The document linked below summarizes the results. Juvenile steelhead trout were found in a number of locations in the creek and so were large pike minnow. Additional survey work is needed as part of determining the best operational schedule for releases from Lake Curry.

Documents

• Suisun Creek: Fish Survey and Water Temperature Monitoring. California Land Stewardship Institute. (22 pp.)

Contact Information

Laurel Marcus
Executive Director
California Land Stewardship Institute
550 Gateway Drive #108
Napa, CA. 94558
Phone: 707-253-1226
Fax: 707-253-1708
Email: LaurelM@FishFriendlyFarming.org
Website: www.FishFriendlyFarming.org

Darcie Luce
Project Manager
California Land Stewardship Institute
Phone: 707-253-1226
Fax: 707-253-1708
Email: DarcieL@FishFriendlyFarming.org
Website: www.FishFriendlyFarming.org